Remembering Tuolumne
By Joseph Celentano, Historical Research
Committee
Internet E-mail: JCelentano@TuolumneMuseum.org
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The Gift of History...
By Joseph Celentano, Historical
Research Committee
History is the account of things said and
done in the past. In this sense, each of
us has a history: an account of where we come from and how we got to be who we are.
Long Gulch, Quartzville, Summersville, Carters and
History serves us in many ways. It can inspire us with stories of exemplary
lives or caution us with tales of human folly and wickedness. History can inform and educate us by providing
the context and perspective that allow us to make thoughtful decisions about
the future. In addition, History has the
power to delight and enrich us, intensify and enlarge the experience of being
alive.
History organizations help preserve and
tell the stories of the past. All accounts of the past—all history—derive from
memory and from the traditions, documents, images, artifacts, buildings,
monuments, landscapes, and ruins that have survived. Since memory is fallible,
and because all things eventually perish, preserving these traces of the past is
vital to our ability to enjoy history’s gifts.
By preserving and presenting the evidence of
the past, and by actively connecting past, present, and future through exhibitions
and public programming, history organizations pass the gift of history on
to future generations. They guarantee that each generation can search for its own answers, and forge its own meanings.
History organizations, in these ways, make
the gift of history a living presence in the lives of Americans and
American communities. They expand our
understanding of who we are and what, in our diversity, we may become. In
addition, they add to the economic well being of
Today, as has been true for more than a century,
this responsibility rests in the hands of the few volunteers who do the work of
and for the nation’s museums and history organizations.
When Americans take to the road, the
chances are one in three that they will visit a museum. Museums are not just for an elite segment of
the national population. Americans from
all income and education ranges visit and value museums.
Regular visits to museums, cemeteries and historic
sites most often makes you feel in touch with local history.
When asked which sources of their knowledge
of the past they most trusted, Americans put museums and historic sites first—ahead
of grandparents, eyewitnesses, college professors, history books, movies, television
programs, and high school history teachers.
Not only are
Digital technologies, rapidly becoming pervasive
in our society, pose a daunting set of opportunities and challenges for history
organizations. They are capable of giving history museum professionals tools
that will make their collections accessible to degrees only dreamt of before. However,
the costs of these technologies are prohibitive for many of these institutions.
Within the museum or historic site, these technologies can enhance and support
the exhibition or interpretation.
For years, researchers have been bringing us
the disquieting statistics on how poorly our schools perform in teaching
history to young people. Students are turned off by
history. It is dull, boring. Therefore,
their knowledge and understanding of leading figures, important events, and transforming
changes is sketchy, their grasp of the methods of historical inquiry immature, their
ability to bring the past into their own lives undeveloped. These young people are
the voters and leaders of tomorrow. From
them, too, must come the patrons, volunteers, and
supporters who will be the next keepers of
Such are the opportunities and challenges facing
History organizations, together with individuals
and families and with history teachers of every sort and in every medium, have
the opportunity to take the lead in connecting persons’ more intimate, personal
pasts with the broader public pasts of their communities, states, regions, and
nation. Americans should find history organizations
to be the most credible of all the purveyors of the past in our society. They are the most trusted keepers and tellers
of the American story.
The
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Reprinted from The New ERA, January 14, 1916:
The Buckley Family are making preparations to take up their residence in
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Reprinted from The New ERA, January 21, 1916:
Dick Buckley
and sister Nellie Buckley left Thursday morning for Stockton, where they
will join their mother and brothers.
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Reprinted
from The New Era, January 21, 1911:
Child
Falls in Well
Elliott Symons, the 7-year-old son of Mr. & Mrs. W.F. Symons, had a narrow escape from
drowning in a well near the family residence, into which the boy fell while
playing last Saturday. The frantic cries
for help uttered by a little playmate, Dick Buckley, attracted the attention of Fred
Baker, who hurried to the spot just in time to rescue him. The well, about twelve feet in depth, was partly filled with water at the time of the mishap, and
had it not been for an old wheel upon which Elliott secured a footing he would
have been completely submerged. As it was the water reached to his neck. Baker hurriedly lowered a ladder into the
well and brought the youngster to safety.
No ill results ensued, for which the parents are more than thankful.
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Reprinted from The New Era, Dec 3, 1915:
Prominent Citizen.....
Called to Final Rest
Again has the
Master’s command been obeyed in this community. On the morning of the 26th
of December, J.E. Conde of Arastraville
received the final summons and entered into that rest which is eternal.
James Eugene
Conde was a native of Genoa, Italy, having
been born there on May 4, 1863. As a boy
of seven, he came with his parents to Sonora, where he grew to manhood.
On July 22, 1894, he was married to Miss Mary Sivori and
became the father of five children, three daughters and two sons. Mr. Conde was prominent in business affairs
and highly respected by all. He was the
proprietor of the Summersville Hotel, and owned and operated a good mining
property, the Dreisam mine.
Besides a widow,
he left the following children: Mrs. Archie Oliver; Mrs. Vincent Saunders;
Mrs. Samuel Hallock; James E. Conde Jr., and a baby
boy.
The funeral took
place Monday last, burial being in Mountain View cemetery, Sonora.
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Hello, “Doc.” Jr.!
The stork
special arrived in Berkley Sunday with a baby boy cosigned to Dr. and Mrs.
Eugene Hammer Reid of Tuolumne. The mother
is getting along nicely, while the little one, who weighed at birth 8 ½ pounds
and has been christened Richard Hammer Reid, is said to be one of the
finest kids ever seen in this or any other country.
Mrs. Reid will
remain in Berkley until early in September.
[RT 05/05]